Vane motor



6, 1969 c. s. MATSON 3,463,052

VANE MOTOR Filed Jan. 23. 1967 FIG. 5

INVENJOR. C.G.MATSON United States Patent 3,463,052 VANE MOTOR Carl G. Matson, 401 E. Central Blvd, Kewanee, Ill. 61443 Filed Jan. 23, 1967, Ser. No. 611,143 Int. Cl. F01c 1/04; F04c 1/02 US. Cl. 91-138 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Vane motors, especially air-driven motors, having pressurized vane slots for the above purpose are known but these all operate on the principal of exchanging the vane slot bottoms with inlet and exhaust during rotation of the rotor, creating a continuous flow of the pressure medium through the slots and thus wasting energy. Furthermore, the prior art relies on connecting the vane slots to the inlet directly at the pressurized side of the rotor and this increases the hazard of permitting entry of foreign matter to the slot bottoms, often preventing full return of a vane and thus causing damage to the motor.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION One feature of the invention is the connection of the vane slot bottoms to the inlet upstream of the inlet chamber or crescent that occurs at one side of the rotor, especially upstream of a restriction provided between the inlet and the inlet chamber or crescent. The passage means thus afforded is sealed off from the outlet and hence the initial volume of air that fills the vane slot bottoms is simply retained in the rotor and is exchanged from slot to slot as the rotor rotates. This decreases the risk of picking up air-entrained foreign matter by the slots. The passage means includes an arcuate passage portion or groove between the mating faces of one end of the rotor and its adjacent end wall of the housing. This groove may be arcuate and formed in at least partially concentric relation to a circular bearing pocket or recess in the housing end wall.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURE 1 is an end view of the motor, with a portion broken away and shown in section;

FIGURE 2 is a section on the line 2--2 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a face view of one end wall of the hous- FIGURE 4 is a section on the line 4-4 of FIGURE 2; and

FIGURE 5 is a fragmentary section on the line 4-4 of FIGURE 4.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The motor typically includes a stator housing having a cylindrical interior fitted with a rotor casing 12 that itself has an internal cylindrical wall 14 providing a rotor chamber 16, here of true circular section; although, it is known to use cylinders of elliptical and other sections. It is not intended, therefore, to limit the invention to the precise construction illustrated. The casing 12 divides the interior of housing 10 into inlet and outlet chambers 18 and 20 respectively, and the casing wall may have one or more bores 22 communicating the inlet chamber 18 with the rotor chamber 16 and one or more openings or slots 24 leading from the rotor chamber 16 to the exhaust chamber 20 and thence to atmosphere via a housing outlet 26. The housing 10 also has a tapped bore 28 leading to the inlet chamber 18 and to which a compressed air hose or the like may be connected in any well-known manner.

The housing 10 has axially opposite end walls 30 and 32 provided respectively with smooth interior radial faces 34 and 36. These end walls may be retained in place in any suitable manner not material here. The wall 30 has a central circular recess or pocket 38 facing toward the rotor chamber 16, and the other wall 32 has a like but opposed recess 40, these recesses being coaxial on an axis eccentric to that of the rotor chamber 16. Antifriction bearings 42 and 44 are received respectively in the recesses 38 and 40 and journal a rotor shaft 46 on which is coaxially fixed a rotor 48 whose axially opposite end faces 50 and 52 are in sealed sliding contact with the wall faces 34 and 36 respectively. The rotor 48 is here of circular cross-section and typically contacts the wall 14 of the rotor chamber 16. The rotor further has a plurality of radial vane slots 54 of uniform depth and arranged in uniform angularly spaced relation about the rotor axis, each slidably carrying a vane 56 that has sliding contact at its outer edge with the rotor chamber wall 14. The rotor and its vanes thus divide the rotor chamber into inlet and outlet chambers or crescents 58 and 60 that are respectively in communication with the housing chambers 18 and 20 respectively via the openings 22 and 24. Thus as the crescent 58 is pressurized via 28-18-22 the rotor 48 turns in a clockwise direction as seen in FIGURE 1 and the air exhausts from the crescent 60 via 24-20-26.

The vane slots 54 are arranged in diametric pairs and the bottoms of the slots of one pair are interconnected by a diametric passage or bore 62 in the shaft 46. The bottoms of the other pair of slots are interconnected by another diametric shaft passage 64 at to and axially offset from the passage or bore 62. The bottoms of the vane slots open axially to the recess 40in the end wall 32 because they lie generally on a circle concentric with and of smaller diameter than the recess. Further the outer race ring of the bearing 44 in the recess is axially shorter than the depth of the recess, leaving an annular gap 66. The opposite ends of the vanes 56, like the opposite faces of the rotor 48 are in sliding contact with the wall faces 3-4 and 36 and, since the diameter of the rotor is greater than that of the recess 40, there will be no air leakage between the bottoms of the vane slots and the rotor chamber 16.

The recess 40 is at least partly bordered by a passage portion or groove 68 formed in the face 36 of the end wall 32 concentrically arcuate with the recess and having a radius larger than that of the recess but less than that of the rotor 48. In the present construction, the groove 68 has an arcuate extent of 90 so that it will register with the bottom of at least one vane slot 54 regardless of the position in which the rotor happens to stop, there being of course 90 between each vane slot and its neighbor in a four-vane rotor.

The rest of the passage means including the groove 68, gap 66 and rotor bores 62 and 64 includes a straight groove 70 formed in the end wall face 32 in tangential communication with the arcuate groove 68 and leading at 72 to the housing inlet chamber 18 upstream of the casing inlet bore 22. The bore 22 is relatively small compared to the main inlet 28 and chamber 18 and thus affords a restriction in the communication between the chamber 18 and the rotor chamber 16 at the inlet side 58 of the rotor 48. Consequently the back pressure created upon introduction of air through the inlet 28 assures immediate filling of the bottoms of the vane slots 54, via 70-68-66 to force the vanes radially outwardly and into proper contact with the rotor chamber wall 14 before the rotor starts turning. Once the vane slot bottoms are filled, there is no outlet therefrom, barring leakage, and as the vanes move in and out the volume of trapped air is simply exchanged from one slot to another and thus does not take in new air even though air is of course consumed as the rotor turns and the vanes pass successively through the rotor chamber inlet and outlet crescents 58 and 60. Therefore, the hazard of picking up foreign matter behind the vanes, or in the vane slot bottoms, is considerably reduced.

The preferred form of passage means 70, 68 etc. is especially easy to machine, is efficient in operation, insures starting of the motor and, beingnon-parallel to the vane slots at areas crossed by the slots during rotation of the rotor, prevents damage to the ends of the vanes.

I claim:

1. In a fluid driven motor having a housing provided with a rotor chamber including a cylindrical wall and axially opposite end walls respectively having interior radial faces, a rotor within the chamber and eccentrically surrounded by the cylindrical wall and having opposite end faces respectively in sealing contact with said interior face of one end wall has a circular recess therein facing toward and coaxial with the rotor, a bearing is carried in said recess for journalling the rotor, the vane slot bottoms open axially to said recess, andthe passage means leads to the recess via an arcuate passage portion in the interior T face of said one end wall at least partially concentric with and bordering on and in communication with said recess and formed on a radius larger than that of said recess, said passageportion having an arcuate extent substantially equal to the angular distance between one vane slot and its next adjacent vane slot.

faces, said rotor having a plurality of angularly spaced from the other side of the rotor, the improvement comprising passage means having a second inlet separate from the first inlet communicating the inlet chamber with the bottom of at least one of the vane slots radially inwardly of the vane therein so as to pressurize the'vane radially I 1 outwardly into contact with the cylindricalwall, said passage means being sealed off from the outlet, and said rotor having interiorly thereof a plurality-of radial cross I bores separated from each other and each bore opening References Cited EVERETTE A. POWELL, JR., Primary Examiner 103-136 US. Cl. X.R. 

